Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

GOOD NEWS

PERCHANCE TO DREAM For every traveler who ever doubted that melatonin could help jet lag, here's new research confirming that the supplement is one potent pill. High doses were given to blind people who had no ability to perceive light and dark and as a result suffered profound sleep disorders. After just two months, all the patients were sleeping more restfully and returned to normal body rhythms. For melatonin to work for sighted frequent flyers, it must be taken at specific times during the day, depending on which direction they're traveling and how many time zones they cross.

BONING UP A drug that's been used for decades to treat high blood pressure may help build strong bones too. A study of men and women ages 60 and older revealed that daily low doses (25 mg) of hydrochlorothiazide increase bone mass 1%. Even tinier doses (12 mg) at least maintain bone density. The drug may be less effective than other well-known bone builders, such as Fosamax and hormone-replacement therapy, but it is safe, has few side effects and, best of all, costs less than a penny a day.

BAD NEWS

AFTER THE FALL If you're thinking of trying in-vitro fertilization to get pregnant, you might consider waiting a few months. A report from Israel suggests that the likelihood of an egg's being fertilized, and the quality of the embryo that results, are lowest in autumn. No explanation yet, but things pick up by winter and peak when signs of life are popping up everywhere: in spring.

PROBLEM PILL So much for free love. For women with a family history of breast cancer, birth-control pills that were made before 1975 may have raised the already heightened likelihood of developing the cancer. Advice: be extra vigilant about getting mammograms if you have close relatives with breast cancer--and if you were using the Pill back when the times they were a-changin'.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources: Good News--New England Journal of Medicine (10/12/00); Annals of Internal Medicine (10/3/00). Bad News--Fertility & Sterility (9/00); Journal of the American Medical Association (10/11/00)